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Rough Start: A Ford Granada Set Up So Well That Even McTaggart Doesn’t Hate It


Rough Start: A Ford Granada Set Up So Well That Even McTaggart Doesn’t Hate It

Stop the presses, call a press conference, a f***ing miracle just took place: A Ford Granada has been located that I not only don’t mind, but might actually consider driving in real life. I’ve been pretty adamant for the better part of my life that the Ford Granada (and it’s corporate siblings, the Mercury Monarch and Lincoln Versailles) were the worst pieces of crap to come out of Dearborn during the height of Brougham, and even now I’ll say it ’till the cows come home. The Mustang II doesn’t deserve half of the hate it gets. The Torino was alright, even after it’s transition from Gran Torino to Starsky And Hutch. Ford trucks from the 1970s are beasts, the vans are …well, they exist, and even the Pinto is pretty awesome. But the Granada, which was a rehashed Ford Maverick (another cool Blue Oval piece) always bothered me.

Leave it to Jalopnik to locate a needle in a freaking haystack. This black-and-blue 1978 Granada coupe has the right look (1970’s NASCAR fan meets shackles in the rear), a 302 H.O. under the hood, a four speed, pipes that exit like a Challenger T/A (smell that exhaust!) and the piece de resistance, a triple-butterfly scoop hooked straight to the carburetor, poking through the hood. It’s clean enough to daily-drive, it’s rough enough that you aren’t concerned, and it’s probably loud enough to scare the local population.

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It looks like a spare competition car from an episode of Dukes of Hazard and is begging to be thrown down gravel roads with the engine tach’d out in third with the tail hanging sideways. And at $2,600, it is well under budget. In fact, if you have a little bit of flex with the $5,000 budget, a Weiand supercharger will be very close to max cost and would bump up the fun factor exponentially. What say you?

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Craigslist Link: 1978 Ford Granada 2-door

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8 thoughts on “Rough Start: A Ford Granada Set Up So Well That Even McTaggart Doesn’t Hate It

  1. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    Well – a rancid clam on a powerful lsd trip has more taste than McTaggart!

    This abortion reminds me of “customised” Mk3 Ford Cortinas in England in the 70s – and should immediately be crushed on general principles!

    My God – he probably even had a strong should we say physical attraction to that ghastly Limo thing – he should withdraw his trusty revolver and do the right thing……

    1. Bryan McTaggart Post author

      Geordie, I’d rather get my jollies using two bricks and a clapping motion than go near that limo. It would be the only car around that you could catch an STD from just by getting too close to it.

  2. Sid in S.C.

    I am a died in the wool Chevy guy, and, I like it, I like it a lot. Not sayin I’d be seen in it, mind you, but, I like it.

  3. Eric

    I was half expecting to see a Pro-charged Windsor backed by a T56 magnum or something hiding under that awful hood scoop thingy. But a wheezy 302 with a Elderbrock (spelling intentional) carb and imposter toploader is pretty close! Shame on you, Bangshift. And that’s coming from an ardent Ford fan, and fan of oddball and beater stuff.

    Yuck.

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